"The Gothic... stands out as exclusively a western style, but even this came as a short summer time, fulfilling a long growth from widespreading roots, nourished by the rivers of Eden. There is much more of the East in Gothic, in its structure and fibre, than is outwardly visible. To account for Gothic we have to account for its historic basis and for the whole atmosphere of mysticism, chivalry, and work-enthusiasm, with all the institutions, monastic, romantic, and social, which formed its environment. Looking at the slow preparation for, and the rapid passing of, western gothic art, and considering the sudden and entire breakdown of its traditions and ideals, I am drawn to the conclusion that the causes which underlay this art are to be found in a long infiltration of the Oriental spirit to the point of saturation, and then the bursting out of the new, yet old, energy shaped to northern requirements."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
William Richard Lethaby, Medieval Art: From the Peace of the Church to the Eve of the Renaissance, 312-1350 (1912)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Middle_Ages
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Middle Ages
64 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Middle Ages →
Related Quotes
"Thou sayst: 'I see the air, I see the fire, The water, and the earth, and all their mixtures Come to corruption, and …"
"The existence of God may be proved in five ways. The first and most manifest way is the argument from motion. ...What…"
"We know Chaucer in the only way in which the greater authors generally have cared to be known. ...All we need further…"
"Music historians have learned that the language and approach of musical theory in the Middle Ages were borrowed direc…"
"[...] there are things in the media that can be spoken ill of with impunity: the Middle Ages is one of them. And this…"
"My own case for Christianity is rational; but it is not simple. It is an accumulation of varied facts, like the attit…"
"No two ideals could be more opposite than a Christian saint in a Gothic cathedral and a Buddhist saint in a Chinese t…"
"I do not mean to say... that these love discussions... were without their influence upon the conduct and ideals of co…"
"This volume, it is believed, contains all the most important tales which formed the great body of mediaeval legend or…"
"Thou sayest, 'Well discern I what I hear; But it is hidden from me why God willed For our redemption only this one mo…"